Do the Chinese love China? For this question, the answer is easy – no! Perhaps you are shocked by seeing my answer because you may think the Chinese are really united and they often refute the criticism from other countries, especially western countries. But I am a native Chinese who can observe the comments and acts of common Chinese. So, unfortunately, I have to say it is just a mirage that Chinese are patriots.

In China, what is called “patriotism” is just a face to get along with others rather than a personal sentiment. There was a famous “patriot”, Rui Chenggang, who used to be a TV presenter at CCTV-2, a channel on Chinese economics. When he interviewed a US commander on the Iraq battle field, he interrogated him as to whether the US army gave the Iraqis freedom, and then told Chinese people to never believe in US freedom.

In the 1990s, when he studied in a US university for a PhD, he told the professors that China’s institution was one of the most proper political systems and gave Chinese freedom, and he didn’t tolerate the American professors’ criticism of China’s social system. He pretended to be a patriot and a fighter against the USA and other western powers. But now he’s in jail, because he’s a grafter and he used his position make dirty money. It is hard to believe a man can both love his homeland and suck money from it at the same time. The story of Rui is a common phenomenon in China – fake patriots!

It is well known that Chinese are slavish and sentimental. This nation has never been rational in the past 5,000 years. Chinese people, especially those who call themselves the watchmen of Chinese culture, will shout at me with dirty words (they are quite sentimental), but you can’t see that there are so many vacant patriots in China. If you surf the internet in China, especially go through the forums about politics, economics and military, you are bound to see that most people are willing to be fighters towards western countries. Most of the time, they think western countries are weak and easily attacked by the Chinese army.

Of course, they don’t know the outside world, and don’t know that the Chinese rely so much on rich western countries for their economics and politics. Some of them think China is strong enough to destroy western countries even though they know little of global news. They also love to spit dirty words on experts who analyse the global situation objectively. If someone tells the truth that EU is so powerful to impact China’s export, those “forumers” will call him or her a “traitor to China.”

If someone writes that China is weak and poor compared with Germany, Chinese netizens will shout at him “go to be a slave for Germany!” They believe China’s institution and power can guarantee their freedom and material condition, which are realised by wiser people to be not as good in China compared with other countries. They can’t understand why so many Chinese people are tilted to the western mode. It seems that these group of Chinese “forumers” are standard “patriots.”

However, if we analyse the social property of these “patriots,” we can easily find why they’re so “patriotic.” First, they come from the bottom of Chinese cities, especially large cities. Thus, they don’t have enough money to migrate to other affluent countries like the rich are doing today in China. They also have no ability to find a high-income job in Chinese or foreign companies.Second, they have extremely poor civility. Those who love to jump the queue may be “patriots.”

Third, they have low IQ or EQ. How to explain it? They never consider about what the background of a piece of global news is, and they think China should be a winner in all global issues. Most of us know that the Chinese government has lost almost all conflicts with other countries, but the “patriots” can’t believe it and even make up fake news to say China was the winner. They’re easy to be stimulated about any little spot of global issues. Those who love to ruin others cars which were made in Japan are classified as Chinese “patriots.”

Fourth, they never go abroad and rarely go to modern cities in China like Beijing and Shanghai. They imagine that western countries are rather poor, and earn much less than working in China. All the four factors above can produce a standard Chinese “patriot.”

However, once the “patriots” change at least one of their characteristics, for example, they have money to move to other countries or travel to western countries, they can suddenly become “traitors.” This process can be done in a flash! Such type of things are happening in China around us every day. This amazing phenomenon tells a dangerous fact in China: those excited “patriots” described in last paragraph are not really loving China, but just finding a way to drain the complaints accumulated in this unfair society. The other reasonable explanation is that only those who have little outside view can love China, and those who have broad views don’t love this country. The Chinese government’s propaganda is a failure, because it can only cheat those who have little outside view.

What about the rich, and officials who are migrating out of China? Questioned about whether they love China, they say they’re patriots and claim that the western world is not as good as the Chinese think, and they criticise western freedom. If western society is such a sham, why do they move their family and fortune to the western world? In 2013, more than 50,000 rich people and government officials joined the queue waiting for the opportunity to have Canadian nationality. Over 80 billion dollars fortune is transferred out of China every year and this number is still soaring alarmingly. Chinese “patriots” are escaping out of their homeland at a dramatic speed!

From the public comments of people, the major two groups of “patriots” are the two I mentioned above. And now it seems that there are too few people that actually love this country. The question arises: Why don’t we love China?

Actually, that Chinese are “patriots” might be just an illusion throughout our history. Sometimes I love reading some history about how the Chinese and their government “defended” the nation when China was invaded between 1840 and 1945. The statements of some Japanese or other countries’ elderly who were members of the invading armies appeal to me so much. It is another view about the history, and a contradictory view. Most of the soldiers thought that there were so many Chinese who betrayed China. The question should be more accurately: Why do Chinese say they love China but indeed hate China?

Reviewing some details of Chinese history, the following phenomena should be noted: people who contributed a lot to China suffered a high possibility of being defined as “traitors,” and then had to face a miserable fate in Chinese history. In the Song Dynasty, Yue Fei, a military commander, fought back a savage army and planned to recover the lost land of the Song Empire. However, the Song emperor suspected Yue would use his troops torise a coup and then killed him as a traitor.

Although he was exonerated a few decades later, his suffering told others a lot. Similar stories don’t only appear in ancient Chinese history, but even in modern history, especially during 1958-1976. During 1927-1949, many military commanders, politicians, writers and artists paid dearly for the liberation of China. After the founding of the P.R China in 1949, many Chinese scientists who had been working in developed countries abandoned the comfortable life there and went back to China to devote themselves to the reconstruction of this newly-born country. Nearly all of them were defined as “traitors” or “spies” during the Cultural Revolution (1966~1976). Many of them were tortured to death.

Tragedies are still occurring today in China. In this country, the labour models are just used for political propaganda. In fact, people who are absorbed in the work may be ignored and earn little. The ones who love self claiming but do little to the enterprise are usually regarded as good and make much money. The Chinese system has imperceptibly taught Chinese people: if you contribute yourself to the country, you won’t have a good result!

One more factor to explain why the Chinese now don’t like to be patriots is the education about how to be patriots. For decades, the Chinese government have taught the people that “loving China means loving the Chinese government and loving the CPC.” However, country, government and party can’t be mixed. Before the 21st century, most Chinese accepted this abnormal education.

Since 21st century arrived, the Chinese government and the party have earned many political achievements including Shanghai EXPO and the Beijing Olympics, using the money sucked from people with ubiquitous taxes in China. However, the government isn’t willing to pay the social welfare which people deserve to have. The situation gives the impression to most Chinese people that the government can have a lot of money when the ruling party wants to make political achievements, but when people ask for social welfare, such as pensions, the government is always saying they don’t have enough money, announcing that the budget of the government is tight.

The achievements of the Chinese government use money from the people, but merely benefit the face of government and make people’s lives tougher. When the country meets crisis, however, the government urges people to save the country. For example, in 2008, when the global financial crisis impacted China, the government called for the people to consume more to promote domestic consumption. However, the previous political achievement had caused terrible inflation, high taxes and the negligible social welfare made people unwilling to buy things.

One more example is about the population policy. The birth control policy was introduced in the early 1980s, and now it has caused a lack of labour in China, almost ruining the possibility of future achievement for the Chinese government. Now the government calls for people to give birth to more children, but the government has no pension for more children. Additional children also means paying more to the government.

Additionally, Chinese compulsory education is still absorbing money from Chinese parents. Who would like to save the future of the country under such a condition? The acts of the Chinese government has taught Chinese people that the government is in need of the people’s fortune and contribution at all times, but never concerned about the needs of the public. When the country and government achieve some glory, the ruling party will praise themselves and even even rationalise taking more money from the people; when the country is in trouble, it asks the people to save themselves, without deserved support from the government.

If someone really loves their country and does a lot for society, just for the nation rather than the government, the government will say he or she loves the government and the ruling party, and ask all people to do the same. Since the government has tied the nation, country, government and ruling party together, the Chinese people have to abandon them together. Hence, the country is unworthy to be loved since the government doesn’t value the people it rules.

In this era, we can imagine those who now claim that they will fight for the country when it is invaded will escape to another country when the catastrophe does take place in future.

Discussion

7 thoughts on “Do the Chinese love China?”

Editor’s Note: In response to the many emails about the poster Mark Chan, we have confirmed he’s a paid Chinese internet commentator. However, we believe that all people should be allowed to voice their opinions, not just the ones we choose. Therefore, at this stage we will not ban him, but will continue to delete comments that are blatant Chinese propaganda, and totally unrelated to the article.

I love my country, and having lived in China for more than 20 years and knowing thousands of Chinese people, I dare say that this article is pure crap. If the author of this article would ever come to Harbin, me and my friends will show him with our fists what we think about our country and people like him. Chinese only know violence, not reason. I confirm I am a paid commentator as well. Let me finalize my opinion with an ancient idiom in Chinese. “洋鬼子也就有胆量在网上瞎扯淡吧 有本事来东北脑袋给你干开瓢“